In the ophthalmic field, at the present time, patients contracting inflammatory diseases account for more than half all the patients of eye diseases. As an ophthalmic solution administered to them, various kinds of medicaments, for example antibiotics, steroid compounds, non-steroid anti-inflammatory agents, FAD preparations, etc., are used. The antibiotics and FAD preparations are categorized under medicaments acting on the causes for inflammation of the eyes (namely, medicaments for causal treatment), whereas the steroid compounds and non-steroid anti-inflammatory agents are categorized under medicaments acting on the inflammation per se of the living body (namely, medicaments for symptomatic treatment).
The steroid compounds provide clinically superior effects on inflammatory eye diseases of the external and front ocular parts, and nowadays are clinically indispensable ophthalmic agents. In contradiction to these favorable effects, however, the compounds are known to have severe side effects, such as aggravation of steroid glaucoma, infectious eye diseases, particularly herpesvirus eye diseases, etc., so that, in the present situation, physicians clinically use them while having some apprehension of these side effects. The non-steroid anti-inflammatory agents are used clinically in conjunction with the steroid compounds or alone, but are unavoidably inferior to the steroid compounds with regard to efficacy. An attempt has been heretofore made to provide ophthalmic solutions containing non-steroid anti-inflammatory agents as a main ingredient, but most of them are so irritating to the eyes and so strongly painful to the eyes that they cannot be practically used as an ophthalmic solution.
Hence, ophthalmic agents for herpesvirus eye diseases have not yet been found.
A primary object of this invention is to provide an ophthalmic solution having potent anti-inflammatory action.
Another object of this invention is to provide an ophthalmic solution having no foregoing side effects and, accordingly, capable of being dropped in the eyes to treat herpesvirus ophthalmia.
A further object of this invention is to provide an ophthalmic solution having less irritative anti-inflammatory properties.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a method for treatment of herpesvirus ophthalmia.